The title of this inspirational piece is actually the title of Sister Ilia Delio’s relatively new autobiography. Delio is a Franciscan sister who has become quite well-known as a theologian in the Catholic Church and beyond. I started reading her writings a few years ago and have found her to be a great teacher. She holds doctoral degrees in both science and theology. She writes insightfully on God, evolution and the nature of the world and where it is heading. She helps me be conversant in a culture that sometimes sees religion as too old-fashioned.
She is influenced by Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit writer on evolution and God who spent much of his life in disfavor from the institutional Catholic Church. He was a paleontologist who spent much of his adult life in China. Searching among distant past of the earth, de Chardin realized that responsible theological thought had to take seriously the findings of contemporary science. He died in 1955, before Vatican II began to get on board with his perspective. Delio has carried forward the torch in ways that benefit me and all those who are trying to make sense of a vast world and cosmos, but who also think God is in the midst of it all.
I like one of her early interpretations of de Chardin’s message. She says that Teilhard decided that the “power of love is God, and God is forever the maker of everything new in love.” (8) She adds that her autobiography is “a story about my journey into the heart of love, of God.” (9) She expands on her understanding of God. “God is an incomprehensible power of love, a power of infinite nearness, hidden in the flesh of the world, so closely united with everything that exists that the lines between divinity and humanity are often blurred.” I like the way she can phrase things. It both makes sense and helps me be more articulate about that which I sense and find difficult to put into words.
We might summarily say that Delio is interested in describing and understanding God, the universe and humans within the universe. She does in it in ways that betray her scientific bent and training and, yet, with the sensitivity of a believer who has been touched by God and learned to live within the embrace of the love of God. Listen to the way she describes it. “…this cosmic home is profoundly sacred, imbued with divine presence---a home make of water, dirt, sweat, and toil, constantly being filled with divine presence, incarnational love, and becoming ever more personal in love.”
Being able to read about Delio’s life gives her theology a human touch and feeling for its being lived. She tells us she received a doctorate in pharmacology and was ready to pursue a life as a scientist. And yet, God kept tugging at her heart. She responded to this tug by entering a “traditional Carmelite monastery.” (10) This would not have been unusual for a religious young Catholic girl from New Jersey. But to enter a Carmelite monastery is a fairly radical move. The Carmelites are an enclosed contemplative group of women. That means they withdraw in some real sense from the world and give their lives over to prayer and work with God. It would be a fairly radical move. But Delio discovered it was not who she was.
In her words, “Just when I thought I had settled on my vocation, I found myself reentering the world and living in a Franciscan community.” This would mean leaving the cloister and living somewhere in an urban area with a ministry within the world. But even this was not a mesh with her spirit. Almost humorously, she quips, “Every time I thought I had arrived at my destination, God showed up in novel ways and I was impelled to get up and follow this mysterious God of breathless love, traveling into new patterns of life.” In some ways this quotation says everything about Delio’s understanding of who God is and how God works in this world.
God is a God of love. God is mysterious. God is as close to us as can be. God is in it with us, rather than a sovereign operating at a distance from the world. Delio says “From a static, fixed understanding of Catholic life in New Jersey,” she found a whole new way of conceiving God and learning to go with God. This new understanding of God she characterizes in this manner. “…God burst forth in my life in such a way that I began to see the dynamism of God in our midst and a new type of person emerging in the twenty-first century.” (12)
I think I am also that type of new person. And so is every reader of this. God is dynamic and is in our midst. That means we, too, can see ourselves as a dancing star---a dancing star being born every day. It is an exciting adventure. We are on a mighty journey. All the images of the Christian from older times can be appropriated and refreshed. It means as spiritual pilgrims, we might get older, but we don’t have to get old. We may die, but we will indeed live on.
We are part of the very fabric of the universe. Every one of us has a job to do. We are the handmaids of this creative God. I suggest as God is love, so we are also to become lovers. As God is a God of peace, so we are also to become peacemakers. We can call it ministry, if we want. But it may be more thrilling than that. We are stars…dancing stars!
She is influenced by Teilhard de Chardin, the Jesuit writer on evolution and God who spent much of his life in disfavor from the institutional Catholic Church. He was a paleontologist who spent much of his adult life in China. Searching among distant past of the earth, de Chardin realized that responsible theological thought had to take seriously the findings of contemporary science. He died in 1955, before Vatican II began to get on board with his perspective. Delio has carried forward the torch in ways that benefit me and all those who are trying to make sense of a vast world and cosmos, but who also think God is in the midst of it all.
I like one of her early interpretations of de Chardin’s message. She says that Teilhard decided that the “power of love is God, and God is forever the maker of everything new in love.” (8) She adds that her autobiography is “a story about my journey into the heart of love, of God.” (9) She expands on her understanding of God. “God is an incomprehensible power of love, a power of infinite nearness, hidden in the flesh of the world, so closely united with everything that exists that the lines between divinity and humanity are often blurred.” I like the way she can phrase things. It both makes sense and helps me be more articulate about that which I sense and find difficult to put into words.
We might summarily say that Delio is interested in describing and understanding God, the universe and humans within the universe. She does in it in ways that betray her scientific bent and training and, yet, with the sensitivity of a believer who has been touched by God and learned to live within the embrace of the love of God. Listen to the way she describes it. “…this cosmic home is profoundly sacred, imbued with divine presence---a home make of water, dirt, sweat, and toil, constantly being filled with divine presence, incarnational love, and becoming ever more personal in love.”
Being able to read about Delio’s life gives her theology a human touch and feeling for its being lived. She tells us she received a doctorate in pharmacology and was ready to pursue a life as a scientist. And yet, God kept tugging at her heart. She responded to this tug by entering a “traditional Carmelite monastery.” (10) This would not have been unusual for a religious young Catholic girl from New Jersey. But to enter a Carmelite monastery is a fairly radical move. The Carmelites are an enclosed contemplative group of women. That means they withdraw in some real sense from the world and give their lives over to prayer and work with God. It would be a fairly radical move. But Delio discovered it was not who she was.
In her words, “Just when I thought I had settled on my vocation, I found myself reentering the world and living in a Franciscan community.” This would mean leaving the cloister and living somewhere in an urban area with a ministry within the world. But even this was not a mesh with her spirit. Almost humorously, she quips, “Every time I thought I had arrived at my destination, God showed up in novel ways and I was impelled to get up and follow this mysterious God of breathless love, traveling into new patterns of life.” In some ways this quotation says everything about Delio’s understanding of who God is and how God works in this world.
God is a God of love. God is mysterious. God is as close to us as can be. God is in it with us, rather than a sovereign operating at a distance from the world. Delio says “From a static, fixed understanding of Catholic life in New Jersey,” she found a whole new way of conceiving God and learning to go with God. This new understanding of God she characterizes in this manner. “…God burst forth in my life in such a way that I began to see the dynamism of God in our midst and a new type of person emerging in the twenty-first century.” (12)
I think I am also that type of new person. And so is every reader of this. God is dynamic and is in our midst. That means we, too, can see ourselves as a dancing star---a dancing star being born every day. It is an exciting adventure. We are on a mighty journey. All the images of the Christian from older times can be appropriated and refreshed. It means as spiritual pilgrims, we might get older, but we don’t have to get old. We may die, but we will indeed live on.
We are part of the very fabric of the universe. Every one of us has a job to do. We are the handmaids of this creative God. I suggest as God is love, so we are also to become lovers. As God is a God of peace, so we are also to become peacemakers. We can call it ministry, if we want. But it may be more thrilling than that. We are stars…dancing stars!
Comments
Post a Comment